Today has been sunny and warm and best of all, I had a day off. All good reasons to be in a great mood and to top it off, it’s Sugar High Friday again! Well, like I need a reason to live out the sweet tooth I have… This month’s edition is hosted by Jarrett at life in flow with the lovely theme “Tantalizing Titillating Tempting Tarts”. Since I just bought a book on quiches and tarts, I was more than eager to finally try one. I narrowed down possible options to four and asked O. for a final word. As one of them contained an Asian ingredient, my question was rather rhetorical…

Finely mince the lemongrass by hand or use a food processor. Combine with the double cream/heavy cream in a pot and bring to the boil. The original recipe uses only double cream, as I ran out of it, I used 300g and substituted the rest with 100g heavy cream – which worked fine. Take the mixture of the heat and let it rest for about an hour.

Butter a tart pan (the one I used was 26cm in diameter, while the original recipe suggested 22 cm) or use parchment paper. Sieve flour into a bowl, add butter and salt. Mix well, then add the coconut rasps, the icing sugar and enough water to get a smooth dough. It’s fun doing it with your hands, sometimes…, but you can, of course, also use your favorite kitchen machine.

Roll out dough in a large enough circle and press into your tart pan. Use a rolling pin to trim away any excess dough by rolling it across your pans’ edges.

Line the tart with parchment paper, fill it with dried beans (or rice, as I didn’t have any dried beans – anything dry of this size should work I guess) and chill for about 30 minutes in your fridge. Meanwhile preheat oven to 190° Celsius. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven. Take out beans/rice or whatever you used and bake for another 10 minutes, until the tart shell gained a nice golden crust, then allow to completely cool down.

Whisk yolks and sugar to a foamy cream. Sieve double cream (with the lemongrass bits) into a pot and blend with the egg yolk cream. The lemongrass you can toss. Cook the mixture at low heat and let thicken.

Soak gelatin in cold water for a few minutes and let it dissolve in the hot cream while stirring. The recipe calls for 4 sheets, I used 3 and would probably reduce it to 2 the next time. Remove pot from heat and let chill. Once cooled down, add filling to the tart shell and put it in the fridge for about 3 hours.

Before you serve it, peal the mangos (how many/much you need also depends on the size of the mangos of course) and cut in thin slices (this was one of the hardest parts for me, how can you get equal looking slices from a mango?). Arrange on cake, add some icing sugar and caramelize under high heat until the mango develops golden spots. I skipped the last part and used a blowtorch for single pieces, which worked fine… until the cream began to melt again… Note-to-self: If I use a blowtorch for a already cut piece of cake, I have to be really quick ;) — so the backup plan was to simply use little mango cubes instead.

Résumé: The taste of the lemongrass cream was an absolute surprise. In combination with the mangos and the coconut crust definitely one of the best tarts I have ever had. On the other hand it’s rather time-consuming and I yet have to find a solution for cutting and arranging the mango pieces on top, so the whole tart is covered AND looks good.

At the bakeries in the city they (I assume) Cut off the mango cheeks, peel off skin then cut the mango like it is sashimi, with the outside of the cheek being the outside of the slice. But you would need to ensure that you didn't get any of the "wood" on the inside of the cheek. Then they have nice pieces that they lay out in rings. It looks really good when they do it!

How ingenious - lemongrass, coconut rasps(?) (would this be desiccated coconut?) and mangoes, all available in my part of the world - will definitely be trying out this tart - thanks for sharing the recipe and great photo!

lis

Jun 19th, 2005

Looks great and sounds just as good!

But I'm a bit confused... flower? Should it really be flowers? Not flour possibly? If not, what type of flowers?

that's definitely one gorgeous photo and i'm sure the tart must have tasted oh-so-fantastic. interesting combination. i would never have pictured lemongrass with mangoes. seems rather thai. i'm quite curious as to how it tastes! haha but i guess in order to find out, i'll just have to make myself one. anyway good job! love your site by the way... have been checking it out ever so often... brill photography too. awesome =)

I came back from a business trip. As soon as I arrived at my blogging world, I looked over your posting. Always, Always, your pictures looks very nice and tasty.... I like tart, and mango. Your matching of tart and mango is fantastic..

Ooops! Somehow we have completely overlooked to answer all the comments to our last SHF entry. SOOORRRRY guys!
To all of you: Thanks for the wonderful feedback! When I started this blog, not even remotely would I have thought, blogging could be so much fun! ‘Hope you stay tuned and will (hopefully) enjoy further posts ;)

Jeanne,
I’m not sure if you could use canned mangos. I once worked with canned mango puree (not for a tart though…). But believe me, I, too, had a tough time prepping the fresh ones ;)

Altaf,
I don’t have any experience in using powdered gelatin… however, a similar question came up some weeks ago and I did some research:
Our used sheets weigh two grams (each), I would imagine that the same amount in powdered gelatin should be fine. I also found posts in German cooking forums and they recommend the sheets over the powder, since they are easier to handle (less likely to lump) and the actual amount is always dependent on your personal taste. It’s more a trial and error process and of course a good reason to have the same dish over and over again :)

Clare eats, Karen
Thanks for the tips on cutting the mango, I’ll give it a shot with the next fruits. I suspect, though, that I may have to invest in some practice before I’ll get the desired, good-looking results I’m shooting for ;) And Karen, I do have a tool to scoop out little melon balls – that’s a great idea, I’ll try that, too!

Dear Zarah Maria,
Hmmm, tough one. Checked out Amazon, as well, found one English book from Sarah Banbery, maybe you want to double-check it? Here is the link.
The one I have is actually written in German and the imprint doesn’t say anything about an English version. Meanwhile, to cut time short, I’ll make sure to soon again pick a nice topic/recipe from this book and write about it… :)

Hey eatzycath,
I would think so – a.k.a “shredded coconut”?

lis,
of course you are right. Fixed it! Thanks for letting me know :)

Hi sarah,
sorry to hear about your mango allergy! But even the book states, that the tart is almost as delicious, when served without mangos (just the lemongrass cream mixture)… Maybe you want to try this way ;)